In the land of fey, do as the fey do on Elective Hall

Giselle Duell

November 13, 2020 6:36 PM

Pick a card, any card. [Intermediates] by Giselle Duell

All things considered, Giselle thought everything was going fairly well so far. No one had kicked her out for not being able to teach, the students seemed to be doing okay, and her Sight hadn’t uncontrollably predicted disaster... yet. There was… something gnawing at the edge of her senses and dancing about the edges of her divinings. She wasn’t sure what it was though. It made her a little uneasy, she didn't like it. She would need to ‘look into it’ later, now it was time for class.

As her students entered the room they found the traditional, two person, round table setup. They were covered with the standard eclectic set of cloth coverings and the chairs were positioned across from each other without having either back to the front of the room. Upon each table Giselle had placed an ornately carved wooden box.

Once everyone had found a seat and settled down, she began. “Today we start a new unit and will be doing some practical basics before I continue to fill your head with drivel and nonsensical theories about the underlying structure of the universe, causality and the part chicken bones play in the grand scheme of things."

She gently lifted a wooden box from its place on her desk that was identical to the ones the students had in front of them. "Each pair of you has a box like this. Inside you will find," pausing she opened her box and withdrew a deck of cards, "a tarot deck." She fanned them out in her hand. "Now contrary to popular belief, they were not designed for the purpose of telling fortunes. They were created around the 14th or 15th century as a card game and it wasn't until around the 18th century that people began to use them for other purposes."

"Since we will be spending a bit of time with these cards over the next few classes, it will be good for you to get to know them. To that end, we will begin with their original purpose. You will find the rules for a few games that use the tarot deck in the box as well, and we will spend the class period playing them. If you are not already sitting with your preferred partner, please find them quickly. I would suggest beginning with ‘Baronetti’. If you finish your game, feel free to play another, or switch partners to play again. Many of the games are actually for four players, so once you’ve done a round or so with two players, feel free to group up and try the four player games.” She set her box back in its place on her desk.

“Oh,” she added as if she had forgotten, “One last thing before you begin playing." She paused for dramatic effect and her smile held just a hint of cunning, "For each game, each of you will shuffle the deck, draw the top three cards and make a note of them. Then next class when we begin to get into the divination aspects of the cards, you can compare the card you drew to the outcome of your game." She smiled at her students, "It may make for an interesting study. You may begin."

OOC: Have fun, the rules in the boxes can be found here.

Subthreads:

Games? [Zara] by Felipe De Matteo with Zara Jackson

In the land of fey, do as the fey do by Mab with Sadie-Lake Chalmers

2 Giselle Duell Pick a card, any card. [Intermediates] 1517 1 5

Felipe De Matteo

November 22, 2020 8:21 PM

Games? [Zara] by Felipe De Matteo

The box on the desk was fancy and the cards inside were fancy and Felipe was actually pretty excited for this. He'd been nervous to take Divination because he wasn't sure that futures were things he wanted to think too much about, but so far it had been good. Now, with games on the table (literally), it was even better. Card games were a big part of social fun time at home and, although he was sure these wouldn't be the same, he was eager nonetheless.

When Professor Duell said they should work with who they were near or else move to find a new partner, Felipe smiled at Zara. His girlfriend was the prettiest girl in the room and the smartest and she always made him smile, although things had been . . . different somehow. He was well aware that his actions the year previously had taken a toll on her and maybe on their relationship, but he couldn't take that back now. Sometimes he wondered if that's why he preferred to look forward to the future instead. At the very least, he liked to hope there was one.

That was something that he struggled with when he spoke instead with Jessica; there was nothing there. As much as he cared for Jessica, and as much as he might have been able to care for her differently in another life time (a fact which he hated but had come to accept in a small way), there wasn't anything there that would outlast Sonora. He just couldn't see himself keeping up with her via letter for the rest of their lives, and he doubted they'd go visit each other much if he was with Zara. It just wasn't going to work and he wasn't about to let go of Zara to try to figure it out with her. At the same time, Zara knew they communicated and Jessica knew where he stood and he just had to hope that maybe something would work out. He didn't want to lose the only people who cared about him now.

Pushing those thoughts aside in favor of the game that was between them, Felipe gestured at the box. "Shall we play together, milady?" he asked playfully, giving Zara a sheepish little smile.

22 Felipe De Matteo Games? [Zara] 1434 0 5

Mab

December 02, 2020 7:09 PM

In the land of fey, do as the fey do by Mab

Mab had hesitated before signing up for Divinations, but that was more out of doubt that she wanted to glimpse into future than that she didn't think it was possible. Some people seemed to think the discipline lacked . . . well, discipline . . . and a lot of people claiming to have divination talent were actually charlatans. Bel swore up down and sideways, though, that it was a real thing and her great-aunt - the same dead great-aunt who had been instrumental in helping Mom find her again - had the Gift. Actually, most of the fey seemed to accept that some small percentage of the population did have this Gift. The bigger question under debate was whether Divinations as a field of study was worth anything if you didn't have the Gift.

Mab . . . did not know if she had the Gift or not. It was unlikely, probably. Only a small fraction of the fey had it, and Mab certainly hadn't declared any prophecies in her life so far.

But there were little things. Feelings and intuitions. Lucky guesses and chance encounters. Little things that could all be easily and understandably attributed to coincidence.

But without them, Mab's life would have turned out very differently, and would have probably been a lot shorter. Maybe it was just that she was a changeling. Maybe it was just that she'd had rudimentary control over her own accidental magic even before attending Sonora (or did she get that control through her Gift, if that, indeed, was what it was?). Maybe people really did get guardian angels and hers worked over and above all reasonable expectations.

But somehow, Mab had a knack for being in the right place at the right time. Somehow, she'd survived living on her own when she was only ten. Somehow, when she did get picked up by the fey police, she got picked up by Bel. Bel who was having a midlife crisis. Bel who didn't want to die alone. Bel who decided to take her in. Bel who decided to send her to Sonora. Sonora where she met Alexander. Alexander who Bel would - against all odds - actually like and agree to add to her family.

If she hadn't been stealing on that street, at that time, what would have happened to her? To Bel? To Alexander? It wasn't even the street she normally did her pickpocketing on. She'd just felt like that spot was the right one for that day.

Had that been the Sight? Wild magic? Divine intervention? The Force? What had happened to her life that 'It was the Sight' sounded like the least crazy explanation? Even among the fey, the Sight was often considered to belong to the realm of the half-insane.

Bel's Aunt Berta did nothing to disprove that.

In the end though, Mab decided to take the class. If she did have a glimmer of the Gift, she ought to cultivate it. She wasn't one to back down from a challenge, and she hadn't gotten this far by ignoring any advantage she might possibly have. If she didn't have the Gift, she still thought it might prove interesting.

None of this prepared her for today's lesson, where they were expected to . . . play games?

She looked across the table at her companion and pulled the tarot deck out of its box. She shuffled it and turned over the top three cards. She noted them down: Magician, Empress, The World. Then she shuffled and passed the deck back across the table to her partner. Matter-of-factly, she informed them, "So you know, I am the magical empress of the world, so you will probably lose this game."

1 Mab In the land of fey, do as the fey do 1473 0 5

Sadie-Lake Chalmers

December 04, 2020 7:16 PM

I'm trying to by Sadie-Lake Chalmers

All their classes were weird, she couldn’t be worse at it than Transfiguration theory, and Jessica hadn’t said not to. Those were the reasons Sadie found herself taking a seat in Divination in spite of the mixed reviews it got as a subject. She supposed she also had to admit to a certain degree of curiosity. She was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be as straightforward as getting a glimpse of the stock market but who didn’t want to at least see if they could get a vague heads up? She always worried about what was around the corner, so some sense of being able to see what was coming might help, right? Although the thing she wasn’t sure about was what to do if it was fixed. Like, if this helped you avoid disaster, that sounded super useful. If it just let you know something horrible was on the way, that was less encouraging.

It started out on familiar enough ground. Weirdly familiar. Tarot readings were a thing that even Muggles did. Or, presumably Muggles. Did this mean that every tarot reader she’d ever seen was a witch? She didn’t venture the question out loud. If they were witches, then surely they were breaking the law? Or was this not ‘magical’ enough to count? Also, if the gift was rare, how come there were so many tarot readers? Or were there? Maybe it was just a couple of witches disguising themselves to look different. After all, they could easily pop between locations using magic. This subject was already confusing. Dang.

Luckily, they didn’t seem to need to actually predict the future right off the bat, which was handy, because Sadie was becoming less and less confident she was going to have any shot at doing that. Playing cards… she probably could do? It wasn’t something she actually had a lot of experience in, but it didn’t sound impossible, unless all the rules were really complicated. Still, she could lose horrifically at cards to someone and still have done her classwork, so she guessed that was okay, if embarrassing. She took the opportunity to pair with Mab because spending more time with her was something she wanted to do this year.

“O-okay,” she stated, as Mab declared herself magical empress of the world. The words sounded like they should have been a joke but it was very hard to tell with Mab who said everything very straight faced. Her own face was a picture of open indecision, clearly waiting for some signal as to whether she should laugh or cower.

She began shuffling, already hitting a barrier as she clumsily slid the deck through the unfamiliar action, almost dropping it several times. Shuffling cards was a thing she saw people do all the time on TV and it looked simple. The cards felt big and awkward in her hands, and she wasn’t quite sure how to manipulate them. She gave them minimal rearranging and drew the top three.

Seven of swords, seven of cups, three of cups.

She noted them down, wondering what they meant. She had read a bit about the cards before class but there were far too many to remember. Most of it seemed pretty non-literal, so she didn’t think the large number of swords meant she was going to get repeatedly stabbed. That would have seemed like a good thing, but it wasn’t like it had exactly been high on her list of worries anyway.

“So, um… how do we play?” she asked, fumbling for the rule sheet and spreading it out on the table between them.

13 Sadie-Lake Chalmers I'm trying to 1480 0 5

Zara Jackson

December 08, 2020 5:33 AM

Sure thing by Zara Jackson

On the surface of it, it probably seemed like Zara’s main reason for being in divination was curiosity, or perhaps nosiness. She was bright and chatty, and liked to know what was going on, but level headed enough to know what was ‘proper science/magic’ and what was not. Proper seers were rare, and untangling their prophecies was complicated and riddled with self-fulfilment. However, she couldn’t help but think there might actually be something to it. For starters, she was always pretty suspicious of any narrow definition of magic which excluded practises as ‘improper’ or ‘without merit’ because what was considered proper and worthwhile was usually the types of magic favoured by stuffy white dudes, and writing off whole branches of magic smacked of cultural imperialism. Maybe certain methods of divination didn’t work well because people had gone around colonising and stamping out the people who practised them without ever really learning them properly. Just a thought. Not that that meant it was going to be any easy for Zara to acquire that several centuries dead knowledge now, but it gave her some sympathy for this branch of magic.

It turned out tarot cards were not an example of such a phenomenon, which somewhat surprised her. Their popularity in the Muggle world as well had made her feel like they might well be a Pre Statute thing, but apparently not. Still, that didn’t mean they couldn’t be interesting and insightful. Things got popular for a reason after all – it was a little similar to horoscopes. Why would they be so popular if there wasn’t some truth to it? And she could see it herself in people. Felipe, for example, was such a typical Cancer.

Speaking of, he wanted to pair up. He was acting pretty normal, and he was taking a whole class on the future. She had to hope that was a good sign, even if it was hard not to worry about him.

“Sounds good. But first we have to take a glimpse at the past, the present and the future,” she reminded him, shuffling the deck and finding she wished she hadn’t said that. She thought there was at least one of those that neither of them really wanted to examine. She pulled out her own three cards. “Huh, rude,” she joked, holding up the middle one which was ‘The Fool.’ She was pretty sure that most Tarot cards didn’t mean what they sounded like. Like, the Death card was fine or something, and there was a totally innocuous one like the Happy Squirrel that spelt certain doom. “The Tarot disagrees with you about me being the sunshine though,” she stated, holding up The Star, which was her third card. The first one was the five of cups, which didn’t seem that interesting. Though possibly it was something super important and meaningful. Who knew? She could look it up later. She noted them down, shuffled them back into the deck and passed it to Felipe.

13 Zara Jackson Sure thing 1444 0 5

Felipe De Matteo

December 08, 2020 5:28 PM

Only the fun kinds though, not the mind ones. by Felipe De Matteo

Felipe nodded, agreeing that they should start with the thing they were supposed to start with. He wasn't so keen on this part because it was the big scary part of divinations, but he also knew it was important. Plus, that was kind of the point of this whole thing. The game was just to get them used to the cards and to have some fun. He didn't know the cards well enough to know exactly what the meaning was of the ones Zara drew, although he memorized them to look up later all the same. He was sure he would interpret them with mostly inaccuracies because he didn't have enough knowledge to do more than that, but it was still interesting to consider.

"Clearly the deck must be wrong," he chuckled at Zara's comment both about the Fool and about not being the sun. He accepted the deck when she passed it to him and shuffled it a bit, taking a breath before drawing his own cards. The first was a six of pentacles, the second was Judgment (these names really were quite harsh, and Felipe wrinkled his nose), and the third was the Moon. He'd drawn the last card upside down, which he was pretty sure was also important so he noted that down as well. He showed all three cards to Zara as he drew them, not sure he was feeling brave enough to try for levity or commentary the way Zara had done.

Satisfied that he'd done his part for past, present, and future, he shuffled the deck again as he spoke, his voice turning contemplative. "It's odd isn't it? On one hand, it seems like just a deck of cards. At the same time, we know that all our magic is just intention and willpower, and it seems like this meets all of that. It's all very . . . personal. Vulnerable." He squirmed a little in his seat. "I'm really glad you're my partner," he smiled, relaxing some as the additional thought occurred to him that he probably had no need to worry about being vulnerable here.

22 Felipe De Matteo Only the fun kinds though, not the mind ones. 1434 0 5